actions speak louder than words

by pieces of moments

I’m not a massive sports fan (other than tennis…anything for tennis), but when the Olympics role around I find myself up into the wee hours of the morning watching NBC night after night after night. It’s not so much about the sport, but the sheer display of excellence; one resplendent public moment for all those agonizing hours behind the scenes in practice. Or, you know, eight golden moments – the most in any one Olympic games ever – if your name is Michael Phelps.

One of my piano teachers atInterlochen would say to me “per aspera ad astra” (which basically means through labor to the stars) and another professor of mine advised me “shoot for the stars, and you might just hit the moon”. Tonight in the Olympic Water Cube in Beijing we were reminded that sometimes with a lot of labor and love you can shoot for the stars and fly right past the moon into the stratosphere.

Hit those practice rooms, kids.

Congratulations, Michael Phelps.

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One Comment to “actions speak louder than words”

Yeah, to me, particularly in the case of Phelps because he’s the perfect example of it, it’s very satisfying to see how hard work pays off. It must be much more satisfying for him than I, to put in all that time so he can go to the Olympics and 95% of the challenge is taken care of.

So like you say, hitting the practice rooms (which I never have done enough) until you just HAVE IT DOWN, then performing, should be very satisfying. I wouldn’t know from first hand experience, but it seems rewarding.